Zoe Saldaña has revealed that she collapsed after she won her first-ever award at the Oscars earlier this year.
In March, the 46-year-old actor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Netflix’s Spanish-language film, Emilia Pérez. While she reflected on the event during Wednesday’s episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, host Mark Consuelos remembered that after Saldaña won the award, he interviewed her backstage.
However, Saldaña confessed that moments after winning her award, she felt sick and fell over.
“I collapsed right after. I lost my voice within an hour after I won the award,” she said during the episode, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. “I couldn’t stand on those heels that I had. All I wanted to do was crawl in bed and maybe cry. I don’t know why, I needed to cry.”
She continued to recall how she physically felt before and after winning the Oscar.
“Your body is running on pure adrenaline, so you know that your immune system is in optimal condition, but once you know you tell your body that it’s over, then everything sort of collapses,” she added.
The Guardians of the Galaxy star also said that the awards ceremony has since become a bit of a “blur” to her. Still, that doesn’t change how meaningful it was.
“It was such a beautiful journey leading up to the Oscars. I don’t think I was there as myself [that day], my 13-year-old self was there,” Saldaña explained.
Emilia Pérez, which entered the Oscars race with 13 nominations, faced immense backlash regarding its stars and portrayal of Mexican culture. In the film, Saldaña portrays Rita, a lawyer who aids a Mexican drug lord (portrayed by Karla Sofía Gascón) in transitioning genders.
Shortly before the Oscars, the controversy deepened when Gascón was criticized for past social media posts, which voiced offensive sentiments on topics such as Islam, George Floyd, and the Oscars themselves. Following the resurfacing of the tweets, Gascon issued an apology while also asserting that she had not been “racist” in her posts.
Jacques Audiard, the film’s director, was among those to criticize Gascon, describing her approach to the scandal, involving multiple apologies and an hour-long TV interview, as “self-destructive.”
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During a backstage Q&A after her Oscar win, Saldaña addressed a journalist from a Mexican news outlet who said that the film’s subject matter was “really hurtful for us Mexicans,” given the country’s central role in the narrative.
“First of all, I’m very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended… That was never our intention, we spoke and we came from a place of love and I will stand by that,” the actor said.
She also contested the notion that Mexico was the film’s focal point, telling the journalist: “I don’t share your opinion. For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico, we weren’t making a film about a country, we were making a film about four women.”
She said that the characters were “still very universal women that are struggling every day, that (are) trying to survive systemic oppression and trying to find their most authentic voices.”
“So I will stand by that but I’m also always open to sit down with all of my Mexican brothers and sisters, and with love and respect, having a great conversation on how Emilia could have been done better,” the actor concluded.
